10-07-2015
Flies that pollinized Cretaceous plants 105 million years ago
When we think about pollination, the image that comes first to our mind is a bee or a butterfly covered by pollen. However, in the Cretaceous -about 105 million years ago- bees and butterflies did not exist, and most terrestrial ecosystems were dominated by non-flowering plants (gymnosperms).
An international research team has recently discovered some amber fly specimens in El Soplao cave (Cantabria, Spain). According to an article published in the prestigious scientific journal Current Biology, these specimens fed on nectar and pollinized gymnosperm plants 105 million years ago. Xavier Delclòs, professor in the Department ofStratigraphy, Paleontology and Marine Geosciences and researcher at the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) of the University of Barcelona, is one of the authors of the study.